by Taiwo Adisa and Olawale Rasheed
THE South-West is the most marginalised region in the current administration, followed by the North-East, findings have shown.
According to investigations, the North-East got its status redeemed
with the election of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while the North-West is the
most favoured region.
Investigations also showed that reports of
northern marginalisation in the current administration could not stand
in the face of evidence as the North-West geopolitical zone strongly
dominates the security, finance and education sector appointments under
the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.
Key northern leaders had, in
recent times, accused the Federal Government of systematically
sidelining the northern region both in terms of appointments into
critical sectors and in terms of access of the zone to presidential
decision-making caucus.
However, checks by the Nigerian Tribune
showed that the North-West has, so far, maintained its hold on decisive
positions within the government, despite the fact that the South-South
is holding the number one position in the administration. While the
president maintains the number one spot in the administration, findings
showed that one of the two most influential figures in terms of
closeness to the president and his day to day actions and decisions is
from the North-West, in the person of the Principal Private Secretary to
the President, Mallam Hassan Tukur. The other influential position is
the Chief of Staff, which is held by Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, from Edo
State.
Tukur and the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief
Oghiadomhe, are said to be the most powerful aides of the president who
see to the day to day running of the presidency and the Federal
Government as a whole.
Apart from the Principal Private
Secretary, the North-West also produced the vice-president, who is
regarded as one of the most powerful vice-presidents of this era. He
oversees the all-important power sector reforms through the oversight on
the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and coordinates the National
Economic Council.
The number four citizen in the government
hierarchy, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal, is also listed as one of the strong holders of levers of power
in the administration.
Besides its strong presence on the
political turf, the North-West also controls all the three major sources
of revenue generation in the economy of the federation, including the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The Group
Managing Director of the NNPC, the Comptroller General of the Customs
service and the acting chairman of the revenue service are all from the
North-West zone.
While the three agencies above are said to be the
sources of over 90 per cent of national revenue, the North-West further
adds to its control of the economy, when it produced the governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The
Minister of State for Finance, who oversees the Federation Account
Allocation, is also from the North-West.
Incidentally, a similar
situation was obstructed by the Senate under Senator Anyim Pius Anyim,
when a Yoruba man from Kogi State was to emerge as the Auditor General
of the Federation. The Senate had argued then that it was opposed to
concentration of all positions in the economic sector in the hands of
the South-West, since the then governor of CBN was from the South-West.
Leaders
of the South-West have, however, objected to the marginalisation of the
region even while the institution, such as the Senate, refused to stand
straight on such issues. They had argued that while the appointment of
a Yoruba from the North was obstructed by the Senate in 2003, the
Senate later sanctioned the concentration of all economic positions in
the South-East and now North-West.
“The South-West is the most
marginalised in all these and the zone cannot continue to keep quiet,” a
leader said, adding that some elders from the zone recently met
President Goodluck Jonathan on the increasing marginalisation of the
zone.
Curiously, if the North is well placed in the political and
financial sectors, the zone is also maintaining its grip on the
security sector, as its men dominate key positions across the security
establishments.
Until the removal of the Minister of Defence, Dr
Haliru Mohammed, who hails from Kebbi State, the region was holding
tight to the number one slot in the Defence portfolio. Even at that, the
North-West still has the National Security Adviser from Sokoto State,
the Inspector General of Police from Kano State and the Chief of Air
Staff, also from the zone.
An administration official, who craved
anonymity, expressed surprise at the constant accusations of bias
against the Jonathan presidency, declaring that “no zone has the level
of high-profile presence the North-West enjoys in the present
administration.”
“It is unfair to accuse Jonathan of bias against
the North. He ceded so much powers and functions to the core North that
I see no difference to when (Musa) Yar’Adua was in power,” the
official, who is also from the North, said.
He stated that the president had also ensured a spread in the appointment of his personal aides.
But
while the president appears to personally maintain a spread in the
appointments, the same cannot be said of agencies under his watch. Only
recently, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega was accused of breaching the Federal
Character Principle by filling a majority of directorate positions in
the commission with northerners.
How North-West rules Jonathan’s government
North-West
•Vice-President
•Speaker, House of Representatives
•CBN Governor
•GMD NNPC
•Acting Chairman, FIRS
•Comptroller-General of Customs
(Chairman, FCCA)
North-East
•National Chairman, PDP
•Executive Secretary TETFUND
•Executive Secretary UBEC
•Head of Service
North-Central
•President of the Senate
•Attorney-General and Minister of Justice
South-East
•Deputy Senate President
•Secretary to the Government of the Federation
•Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives
•Minister of Finance
•Minister of Aviation
•Minister of Power
•Minister of Labour
•Minister of Health
South-West
•Minister of Agric
•Minister of Police Affairs
•Minister of Trade and Investments
•Minister of Foreign Affairs
South-South
•President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
•Senate Leader
•Minister of Petroleum
Nigerian Tribune
No comments:
Post a Comment